This
guideline documents an English Wikipedia
naming convention. Editors should generally follow it, though
exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect
consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the
talk page. |
This page in a nutshell: Article titles should use singular form, except for nouns that are always in their plural form. |
In general, Wikipedia articles have singular titles; for example, our article on the Canis familiaris species is at Dog, not Dogs. This rule exists to promote consistency in our article titles, and generally leads to slightly more concise titles as well.
Exceptions exist for two general types of articles.
There are two main types of exceptions to this rule:
In rare circumstances, we ignore the rules here in order to make the encyclopedia better.
These rules apply only to articles. Categories are almost always given plural titles, and many templates are as well.
Because most articles (like Chair) have singular titles, the normal situation is that a plural redirects to its singular, or to wherever its singular redirects. For instance, Chairs is a redirect page, which takes readers directly to Chair; Panda redirects to Giant panda, and thus so does Pandas. For the rare articles that have plural titles, like Seattle Seahawks, there should normally be a redirect from the singular form ( Seattle Seahawk). Such redirects can bear their respective templates, as well: {{ R from plural}} or {{ R to plural}}.
Sometimes, however, a plural form will establish a separate primary topic. Windows does not redirect to Window, but rather to Microsoft Windows; Snickers is about the chocolate bar, while Snicker redirects to Laughter. It may also be the case that a singular form ( Axe) has a primary topic, while a plural form ( Axes, which is the plural of both Axe and Axis) does not, or vice versa ( Android is a disambiguation page, but Androids redirects to Android (robot)).
Discussion and consensus among editors, possibly through a requested move, determines if there is or is not a primary topic. For instance, discussion and consensus might determine that Cars should redirect to Car (as it currently does), redirect to Car (disambiguation), or host a topic such as Cars (film).
In making such a determination:
This
guideline documents an English Wikipedia
naming convention. Editors should generally follow it, though
exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect
consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the
talk page. |
This page in a nutshell: Article titles should use singular form, except for nouns that are always in their plural form. |
In general, Wikipedia articles have singular titles; for example, our article on the Canis familiaris species is at Dog, not Dogs. This rule exists to promote consistency in our article titles, and generally leads to slightly more concise titles as well.
Exceptions exist for two general types of articles.
There are two main types of exceptions to this rule:
In rare circumstances, we ignore the rules here in order to make the encyclopedia better.
These rules apply only to articles. Categories are almost always given plural titles, and many templates are as well.
Because most articles (like Chair) have singular titles, the normal situation is that a plural redirects to its singular, or to wherever its singular redirects. For instance, Chairs is a redirect page, which takes readers directly to Chair; Panda redirects to Giant panda, and thus so does Pandas. For the rare articles that have plural titles, like Seattle Seahawks, there should normally be a redirect from the singular form ( Seattle Seahawk). Such redirects can bear their respective templates, as well: {{ R from plural}} or {{ R to plural}}.
Sometimes, however, a plural form will establish a separate primary topic. Windows does not redirect to Window, but rather to Microsoft Windows; Snickers is about the chocolate bar, while Snicker redirects to Laughter. It may also be the case that a singular form ( Axe) has a primary topic, while a plural form ( Axes, which is the plural of both Axe and Axis) does not, or vice versa ( Android is a disambiguation page, but Androids redirects to Android (robot)).
Discussion and consensus among editors, possibly through a requested move, determines if there is or is not a primary topic. For instance, discussion and consensus might determine that Cars should redirect to Car (as it currently does), redirect to Car (disambiguation), or host a topic such as Cars (film).
In making such a determination: